I love NPR's This American Life show. But somehow I missed a great episode.

If you have broadband access you have to listen to this show.

Act 1 is about a family who adopted a child from Romania. This child spent the majority of his time in a crib... 7.5 YEARS. Then an American family adopted him

There was a brief honeymoon where the child tried to act perfect. But then he displayed all his pain and rage. The child put more then 1,000 holes in the walls of his room.

He raged for 6, 7 hours. He hated his adopted parents because he needed someone to hate... he had finally figured out that he had been born and his birth parents didn't take care of him. Weird but until the boy turned 8 years old and experienced a family life, he didn't understand he had been born to parents.

The family found effective therapy... first with Dr Federici. Then when their son was 13 years old they found additional help with Dr Keck. They regressed their son by holding him and spoon feeding him ice cream.

Anyway after many struggles, there is a happy ending.

Act 2 is an interview with a different family (husband and wife) about parenting their autistic son. And when/why they placed their son in a residual program.

Hard as it is to believe, during the early twentieth century, a whole school of mental health professionals decided that unconditional love was a terrible thing to give a child. The government printed pamphlets warning mothers against the dangers of holding their kids. The head of the American Psychological Association and even a mothers' organization endorsed the position that mothers were dangerous – until psychologist Harry Harlow set out to prove them wrong, with a series of experiments with monkeys.

From: This American Life: Unconditional Love Episode 317

Some History on Attachment
Early History of Attachment Theory
US History of Attachment Theory